Python in TouchDesigner

Learning TouchDesigner can feel a bit intimidating if you happen to be new to programming. For artists who are new to the idea of working in a programming environment it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. That’s okay, in fact it’s great. There’s lots to learn here in the TouchDesigner universe, and one of the primary ingredients for you to start with is getting a solid handle on Python 3. It’s easy to feel like maybe GLSL or C++ should come first, but if you’re looking to get a handle on building full projects, then you need a solid scripting language. Python, as a high level language, is fairly human readable, and once you get the hang of it is fun to write. We can use Python for a number of different operations in Touch, and it is hands down the best way to improve your touch programming quickly.

These series of examples will look at basic python concepts through the lens of the TouchDesigner programmer. Cross domain transfer, the act of moving knowledge from one conceptual frame to another, is often very challenging. For that very reason here we’ll look at how to start with python in the context of TouchDesigner, what we might do with it, and why it’s so very important.